NOTE: The example ingredients and final recipes used in this blog can all be found in the Sample NL Database (which you can access in FoodWorks Nutrition Labelling from the Help menu).

Before you can create a recipe in FoodWorks, you first need to enter its ingredients. Some of the ingredients from your suppliers will have their own ingredients. These are called compound ingredients in the FSANZ Food Standards Code:

Compound ingredients are ingredients that have two or more ingredients of their own. (Food Standards Code 1.1.2)

If a compound ingredient will be more than 5% weight of a final recipe, then you must declare its ingredients on the recipe’s label. If the compound ingredient will be less than 5% of the weight, you can also declare its ingredients if you choose to.

How you enter a compound ingredient into FoodWorks depends on the information you have for it:

• If the supplier has provided both a list of ingredients and nutrition information for the compound ingredient but NO quantities for its ingredients, you add it as a Raw Material.
• If you have quantities for the ingredients of the compound ingredient, you add it as a Sub-recipe.

A.   How to create a compound ingredient using an ingredient list without quantities

If you are creating a compound ingredient for which you have an ingredient list and nutrition information from the supplier, but no ingredient quantities, you can enter it into FoodWorks as a Raw Material.

On your recipe labels, the compound ingredient will be declared as its declaration name (merged into the final list in order of ingoing weight), with its own ingredients in brackets.

Here are the steps:

1. Create a Raw Material. On the toolbar, click New, then Raw Material.

2. Enter the name of the ingredient and choose a folder.

3. For the Label Declaration, choose Compound Ingredient.

4. Enter the Declaration Name, that is, the ingredient name that you want to appear on the label of your recipes (in the example below, canned tomatoes).

5. Enter the ingredient list provided by the supplier in the Statement (>5%) field.

6. Then on the Nutrients & Components tab, from the supplier information, enter the nutrient values and allergens.

7. On the toolbar, click Save.

Example

Now when you use this compound ingredient in a final recipe, on the label it will be shown as its declaration name with its ingredients in brackets.

In the Spicy Tomato & Lentil Soup recipe label, shown below, the compound ingredient with the declaration name, Canned Tomatoes, is shown in this way:

B.   How to create a compound ingredient using an ingredient list with quantities

If you have the quantities for the ingredients that make up your compound ingredient, you can enter the compound ingredient into FoodWorks as a Sub-Recipe. The nutrition information can then be calculated from its ingredients.

On your recipe labels, for a Sub-Recipe you can merge its ingredients into the ingredient statement for the final recipe, without showing the name of the sub-recipe.

Here are the steps for creating a compound ingredient as a Sub-Recipe and merging its ingredients into the final ingredient list:

1. Create a Sub-recipe. On the toolbar, click New, then Sub-recipe.

2. Enter the name of the ingredient and choose a folder.

3. For the Label Declaration, choose Sub-recipe or Recipe.

NOTE: You could instead choose to show this compound ingredient on recipe labels as its declaration name with its ingredients in brackets – choose Compound Ingredient (from ingredients).

4. Then on the Ingredients tab, enter the ingredients of the compound ingredient, and their quantities. And enter any necessary yield and serve information.

5. On the toolbar, click Save.

Example

Now when you use this compound ingredient in a final recipe, on the label its ingredients will be merged into the final recipe’s ingredient list by order of ingoing weight (and the sub-recipe name will not appear.)

For example, take the compound ingredient Caramelised Onion, which has four ingredients. It has been created as a Sub-Recipe, then declared as a Sub-Recipe on its General tab, as shown below:

In the Spicy Tomato & Lentil Soup recipe label, shown below, the name “Caramelised Onion” does not appear and its four ingredients are merged into the ingredient statement:

Tutorial Video

For more help, view this short tutorial video on declaring compound ingredients.